Some first conclusions

It is allowed and defined where beamline scientists can save their "natural coordinates", too, in this case the required/used transformation into the unified coordinate system must be given in a standardized way

this transformation can be anywhere in the tree. The closest transformation group defines the transformation for a specific devices (first look in the device itself, then in subgroup, last in root of file)

Complete beamline description vs. methods:

Devices should be defined independent of the methods they can be used for

The complete beamline description should be saved in a separate, complex tree

Each method has a rather flat tree parallel to the beamline description tree. All elements in the method tree are linking to the beamline description tree. They use plain names which can be understood by most users

some non-method specific areas, e.g. sample, user should be defined for all methods by a separate, beamline description group

To Do

Estimate: How long will it take to get complete beamline description

Form "complete beamline description" group with the following tasks (Rainer Gehrke, Felix, Mark, Francesco, Patrik, Pete)

agree upon coordinate system

agree about what has to be in the complete beamline description (complete = "nothing is missing which someone might need")